Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Indispensable Logic: Using The Logical Fallacy Of The Undistributed Middle As A Litigation Tool, Stephen M. Rice

Akron Law Review

This article explores the logical fallacy named the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle and demonstrates how it can be a powerful tool for those engaged in the discipline of solving legal problems and evaluating legal arguments. First, it will explain what formal logic is, how it is different from informal conventions of logic, and describe the important role formal logic plays in skillful advocacy. Second, it will explain the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle and why arguments falling into this fallacious pattern of reasoning are logically invalid. Third, it will examine the courts’ contemporary recognition of this formal logical fallacy …

Lawyers' Professional Independence: Overrated Or Undervalued?, Bruce A. Green

Akron Law Review

This article grows out of a presentation on November 9, 2012, as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series of the Akron Law Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility. This article begins with some reflections on the principal meanings of professional independence, as that term is conventionally employed. Part II discusses the bar’s collective independence to regulate its members. Part III discusses individual lawyers’ independence in the context of professional representations, including independence from clients, on one hand, and independence from third parties, on the other. Part IV then suggests that there is a meaning of …

What It Means To Be A Lawyer In These Uncertain Times: Some Thoughts On Ethical Participation In The Legal Education Industry, Susan Carle

Akron Law Review

I will first take a quick look in Part II at the basic data regarding employment statistics for recent law school graduates. This is the primary source of concern cited by those who argue that legal education is in profound crisis. What those statistics show, in a nutshell, is that large law firm hiring is down, but that small firm hiring is up by even more significant amounts, and that salaries for employed graduates continue to rise. What also continues to rise is the new law graduate unemployment rate, though not by the exaggerated dimensions some reports imply. New lawyers …

Ethics 20/20 Successfully Achieved Its Mission: It "Protected, Preserved, And Maintained", James E. Moliterno

Akron Law Review

The profession, it turns out, serves the status quo in multiple ways. At times, serving the status quo means making significant changes that will fend off outsiders or cultural change. At other times, serving the status quo means doing as little as possible in the vain hope that change will pass the profession by as if it were a bad dream rendered irrelevant by the morning light. In either event, the profession loses. Change comes and washes over the profession’s walls. The profession began to organize in earnest in the 1870s as state and local bar associations sprang up. For …

What Are Lawyers For?, Daniel Markovits

Akron Law Review

What are lawyers for? What social purposes do lawyers serve? What functions underwrite the special obligations and entitlements that accompany the lawyer’s professional role? I shall try to sketch an answer to these questions, at least with respect to lawyers who function as litigators, in adjudication. The answer will surprise many. Lawyers, I shall argue, do not serve truth or justice, and should not seek them. Instead, lawyers serve to legitimate

The Client Who Did Too Much, Nancy B. Rapoport

Akron Law Review

Discussion of the effect of a lawyer pursuing actions based on pressure from his client.

Administrative And Interim Suspensions In The Lawyer Regulatory Process - A Preliminary Inquiry, Arthur F. Greenbaum

Akron Law Review

Suspending a lawyer from practice, even for a limited period of time, however, can have substantial negative consequences for the lawyer, the lawyer’s clients, third-parties, and the legal system. In this article, I explore the differing rationales underlying each of these types of suspension and whether, in each instance, suspension is the appropriate tool to protect those interests, or whether less drastic remedies would suffice. Upon balancing the legitimate interests furthered by such suspensions against the substantial costs they impose, I argue for tempering those consequences in certain settings, such as pure administrative suspensions, and for employing less disruptive sanctions …

Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow: Ethics 20/20 Amidst A Changing Profession, Thomas Ross

Akron Law Review

In Part II of this paper, I will sketch briefly my sense of some of the important ways in which the practice of law seems to be evolving. Part III will revisit the work of the Ethics 20/20 Commission and suggest that the posture of the Commission and of the ABA elite in this initiative has been essentially one of accommodation and facilitation, rather than an oppositional stance. I will briefly note a historical instance of the organized bar taking such an oppositional stance and offer some hypotheses about why the organized bar has chosen these two different postures in …

Attorney As Ethicist, Terry Szmagala

Akron Law Review

This is a transcript of Terry Szmagala’s speech from The University of Akron School of Law’s Miller-Becker Center for Professional Responsibility Symposium, Navigating the Practice of Law in the Wake of Ethics 20/20 – Globalization, New Technologies, and What It Means to Be a Lawyer in These Uncertain Times, which occurred April 4-5, 2013.

Real Metamorphosis Or More Of The Same: Navigating The Practice Of Law In The Wake Of Ethics 20/20 - Globalization, New Technologies, And What It Means To Be A Lawyer In These Uncertain Times, Jack P. Sahl

Akron Law Review

On April 4 and 5, 2013, The University of Akron School of Law’s Miller-Becker Center for Professional Responsibility (“MBC”) hosted the symposium, Navigating the Practice of Law in the Wake of Ethics 20/20 – Globalization, New Technologies, and What It Means to Be a Lawyer in These Uncertain Times (Ethics 20/20 – Uncertain Times). The symposium examined the myriad of changes and problems confronting the bar, legal education, and the courts. Although law schools, courts, and the organized bar have provided a steady supply of programs addressing the recent changes confronting the profession and legal education, Ethics 20/20 – Uncertain …

Inmates’ E-Mails With Their Attorneys: Off-Limits For The Government?, Amelia H. Barry

Catholic University Law Review

The attorney-client privilege is vital to inmates who otherwise have limited opportunities for private communications in prison. Traditionally, inmates have only been able to communicate with their attorneys via in-person visits, phone calls, and mailed letters. As federal inmates have begun using e-mail to converse with their attorneys, courts have had to determine if these conversations are protected by the attorney-client privilege. This Comment discusses courts’ approaches to this question, many of which have found that inmates’ e-mail communications with their attorneys are not privileged because by using the federal prison e-mail system, which warns users that conversations can be …

A Good Rule, Poorly Written: How The Financial Crisis Highlighted The Inadequacy Of Iolta Rate Rules, Andrew Arthur

Catholic University Law Review

Interest on lawyer trust accounts (IOLTA) provide a substantial component of funding that is used to provide legal aid to needy individuals throughout the United States. However, IOLTA program revenues fluctuate with the deposit interest rates, which have remained near zero after the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis. The Comment examines IOLTA rate rules across the country, and the impact of reduces IOLTA revenues on legal aid programs. The Comment further asserts that IOLTA rate rules are not adequately designed to account for fluctuation in central bank interest rates, causing unanticipated problems for legal aid funding. Finally, the …

Resolving The Conflict Between Fiduciary Duties And Socially Responsible Investing, William Sanders

Pace Law Review

Part I of this Article clarifies and strictly defines the frequently nebulous idea of socially responsible investing (“SRI”), explaining its history, trends, and current status. To give perspective and perhaps temper hype, Part II discusses the efficacy of SRI as a method of change, concluding that while SRI may not have much effect on air quality or oppressive foreign governments, there are situations where SRI is useful and even necessary. Part III looks at the conflict between SRI and the fiduciary duties of trustees, investment advisers, and broker-dealers. It shows the contractual nature of fiduciary duties and why this is …

Investigating Jurors On Social Media, Caren Myers Morrison

Pace Law Review

This essay proceeds in three parts. First, it examines the current state of jury investigations, and how they differ from those conducted in the past. Then, it describes the evolving legal and ethical positions that are combining to encourage such investigations. Finally, it offers a note of caution–condoning such investigations while keeping them hidden from jurors may be perceived as unfair and exploitative, risking a possible backlash from outraged jurors. Instead, I propose a modest measure to provide notice and explanation to jurors that their online information is likely to be searched, and why.

Friends Of Justice: Does Social Media Impact The Public Perception Of The Justice System?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Pace Law Review

This article will demonstrate how the unregulated use of social media by participants in the justice system (judges, attorneys and jurors specifically) affects the public perception and subsequently the integrity of our justice system. The article will provide a holistic review of social media use by judges, attorneys and jurors, and demonstrate why their use of social media should be harnessed in a manner to ensure compliance with ethical rules and reduce potential negative effects to the social contract between law and society.

Social media is like a culvert. It catches pictures, novelties, personal profiles, gossip, news, unfiltered opinions, and …

The Management And Stewardship Of A Cetacean Collection, Rebecca Vele

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Cetacean, by definition, is a marine mammal of the order Cetacea; a whale, dolphin or porpoise. In light of their social intellect and friendly appearance, cetaceans are used in institutions such as zoos and aquariums as a source of education and entertainment for the public. Before the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, cetaceans were captured worldwide including in U.S. waters. In the United States today, there are over 224 zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Out of those 224, 34 of these institutions display cetaceans.

Even though the Marine Mammal Protection Act “Prohibits, with …

Lost In Compromise: Free Speech, Criminal Justice, And Attorney Pretrial Publicity, Margaret Tarkington

Florida Law Review

Prior approaches to examining attorney speech rights have failed to address pretrial publicity in a manner that protects the criminal justice system and the essential roles of the prosecutor and defense attorney therein, as discussed in Part I. Yet the access-to-justice theory, as discussed in Part II, attunes attorney speech rights to the role of the attorney in the proper and constitutional functioning of the justice system. As discussed in Part III, the very nature of the criminal justice system imposes vastly differing obligations and duties on the prosecution and defense and their respective attorney–client relationships. In Part IV, this …

Viewing Privilege Through A Prism: Attorney-Client Privilege In Light Of Bulk Data Collection, Paul H. Beach

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note will argue that the attorney-client privilege is justified not only by the popular instrumentalist rationales, but also by noninstrumentalist thinking. It will further argue that Federal Rule of Evidence 502 gives federal courts the tools to protect the attorney-client privilege in light of bulk data collection. Even where courts do not find that traditional modes of communication constitute reasonable steps to protect a confidential communication, general considerations of fairness—as noted in Rule 502’s committee notes—should encourage courts to uphold attorney-client privilege in future situations of bulk data collection disclosures. Part I will discuss the establishment, development, and operations …

Kantian Intuitionism As A Framework For The Justification Of Moral Judgments, Robert Audi

Mercer Law Review

Intuitionism in ethics has often been thought to lack a way to unify the plural standards it endorses. It has also been taken to have at best meager resources for explaining how we should resolve conflicts between prima facie obligations. On this resolution problem, W. D. Ross appealed to Aristotelian practical wisdom. He argued that neither Kantian nor utilitarian ethics (the two most promising rival views he considered) offers an adequate alternative.' There is, however, an interpretation of Kant's humanity formula of the categorical imperative for which this negative assessment is unduly pessimistic. This paper will show why. I am …

The Relationship Between Christian Theology And Legal Ethics In The Thought Of Jack Sammons, Timothy W. Floyd

Mercer Law Review

Jack Sammons is a man of enormous breadth of interests and expertise. This Symposium, with its diverse topics and contributors, is a testament to his remarkable range of thought, his unmatched creativity and originality, and his influence on generations of scholars. I am convinced that no one who has followed Jack's career for these past decades can keep up with him in all the paths he has trod. Fortunately, none of the contributors here have been asked to comment upon his entire range of scholarship.

Two areas in which Jack and I share an interest are legal ethics and Christian …

Further Reflections On Teaching Professionalism: A Thank You Note To Jack Sammons, Patrick Emery Longan

Mercer Law Review

In 2009, I published Teaching Professionalism in this Law Review to describe the content and methods of Mercer's first-year course on professionalism. Since then, we have made significant changes to the course, and it seems fitting to share some of those developments in the context of a Symposium that honors the scholarship and teaching of Jack Sammons. As I noted in the earlier article, the idea for the course came from Jack before I ever came to Mercer. It is also appropriate to use this occasion for another reason. I can trace the early design of the course, and most …

An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of The Use Of Ethical Intuition In Legal Compliance Decisionmaking For Business Entities, Eric C. Chaffee

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Discursive Ethics Of Jack Sammons, David T. Ritchie

Mercer Law Review

Professor Jack Sammons has been a widely celebrated teacher, community activist, and distinguished member of the bar. He is also a prolific scholar; perhaps the most prolific scholar the Mercer University School of Law has ever seen. My interest in the body of Jack's work, and hence my focus here, is on what I consider to be the core of his scholarly agenda. I would like to caution that this is my reading of Jack's work as a corpus. I am not entirely sure that Jack would agree with this reading (especially later on when I will make some connections …

Time, Ethics And Experience: Review Of David O. Brink's Prospects For Temporal Neutrality, Pedja Ilic

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Are temporal locations of harms and benefits important to human existence? Conventional wisdom unambiguously suggests so, albeit interpretations of various dogmatic texts and beliefs. Discussions about pain, grief, and suffering are commonly favored within past temporal settings, unlike those of happiness, comfort, and wellbeing that permeate conversations with future temporal locales. Past pain is preferred to future pain, even when this choice includes more total pain (Callender, 2011). Should these positive and negative qualifiers that constitute conscious existence have privileged temporal locations? This ethical question, like many others surrounding temporality, inherits both theoretical and pragmatic inquiries - becoming indispensable within …

Addressing Access To Justice Through New Legal Service Providers: Opportunities And Challenges, Alice Woolley, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

Most informed observers of the Canadian and American legal systems accept the existence of a significant crisis in access to justice. One possible solution is to permit paralegals, notaries or other licensed individuals with training more limited than that enjoyed by a licensed attorney to practice in certain areas of law. This paper supports these developments, arguing for a regulated and incremental introduction of new legal service providers into the legal services market. It considers the appropriate training and scope of practice for new legal service providers, and some of the associated opportunities and challenges.

An Assessment Of Affirmative Action In Business, Jordan A. Kennedy

Honors Scholar Theses

Affirmative action has become an inevitable aspect of the employment hiring process. It has been put into place to assist in eradicating the institutionalized discrimination that inherently exists in such practices. On the surface, affirmative action may appear to be something that is beneficial to both the hiring institution and the individual; it seems to be a win-win situation because the business is creating a more diverse workplace and the individual is getting a job that they desired. However, the way that affirmative action is practiced may prevent its overall effectiveness. For example, there are several fundamental flaws with this …

Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, And Other Emotional Realities In The Lawyer/Client Relationship, Marjorie A. Silver, Sanford Portnoy, Jean Koh Peters

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Comprehensive Law Movement, Susan Daicoff

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawyering And Its Discontents: Reclaiming Meaning In The Practice Of Law, Marjorie A. Silver

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defining The Role Of Law Guardian In New York State By Statute, Standards And Case Law, Diane Somberg

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.